Must-read romantic suspense: ‘Silent Scream’ by Karen Harper

Must-read romantic suspense: ‘Silent Scream’ by Karen Harper

I’ve been curious about the newest book in Karen Harper’s South Shores series, Silent Scream. With a quartet of preceding suspenseful cliffhangers, I’m happy to refer to this one as “lucky No. 5,” because the resolution is so gratifying.

“The dead still talk if you know how to listen.”

Poor Claire Britten is in the cross hairs again, this time as she assists an old college friend, Kristen Kane, on an archaeological dig at The Black Bog in Florida. So far in the series, her daughter’s been kidnapped, they were all in a plane crash, they’ve been in witness protection, a whole lot of animals were slain, and now she’s wrestling with what appears to be fresh victims in an ancient peat bog. Who knew life as a forensic psychologist could be so exciting? Her life, like the series, is not for the faint of heart. Fortunately, she’s a capable, believable, relatable character.

Her husband, Nick Markwood, is a great character, too. He’s a criminal attorney and, way back in book one, recognized her value as an investigator. He’s got a side project that helps people “determine whether the deaths of their loved ones were murders or suicides,” so it’s no surprise that that forensic psychology aspect of her mind grabbed him by the heart. Over the course of the series, his story arc has shown him to be an adventurous, unflappable, silver fox.

“… after all, what can go wrong when you’re dealing with those who are long dead, who have no family members or even enemies to file a lawsuit or cause a problem?”

Famous last words, right? The suspense kicks in early, though not with the bog, as expected. A body has been found in the freezer of a house recently owned by Dale Braun, a junior partner in his law firm, that’s being purchased by the security guard at Nick’s law firm. The plot thickens when it turns out the body isn’t that of a stranger, but the ex-fiancée of the junior partner. And now that Nick is distracted, Claire heads off for her safe part-time consulting gig. Right.

“I’ll bet you’re relieved to be going to the land of the long dead instead of the newly dead. Sorry if that came out wrong,” Kris told Claire as she drove them in a Jeep on the Tamiami Trail toward Black Bog.

Silent Scream has an interesting twist, in that Kris has prosopagnosia. Their shared health struggles — Claire’s narcolepsy and Kris’ face blindness — bonded them quickly at Florida State University, forging a lifelong friendship and playing prominently in the approaches both women have in life and in their professions. Dale’s fiancée isn’t the only new dead body discovered in this story, and it soon becomes evident on the dig that some of the bodies are too staged, “so perfect a lure.” Turns out, peaty mud can hide a lot of crimes. The ending packs a real wallop that’ll get your blood really moving.

Dolly R. Sickles is a lifelong Southerner with a penchant for storytelling. She writes romances as Becky Moore and children’s books as Dolly Dozier. While she loves to read just about anything, romantic suspense is her kryptonite. When she’s not adventuring around the world with her husband and son, she teaches writing classes at two local community colleges and works on her own books. Follow her on Twitter (@drsickles) and Goodreads (dolly_sickles).